Our current clients are at various stages in their ARC support
New clients typically onboard in the summer or early fall
During this assignment timeframe, only one client was scheduled for a session
We do see similar trends across clients, however
The goal is to be able to inform all of our work that can be applicable to all clients, using Downingtown as a point of reference
Specifically, Downingtown's two middle schools are five months into their partnership with Project ARC. Due to a variety of reasons that are discussed below, not every teacher in the first training cohort has attended every session. This has resulted in gaps in their learning.
Recommendations based on Assets Inventory and provided to Administration
Fewer instances of direct instruction
Formative assessment
Deeper levels of questioning
Teachers identified as being ready for initial training
2-day initial training in October, 1-day follow-up in December
Several teachers missed the second day of the initial training due to class commitments
Administration has not made any of the sessions mandatory
Participating teachers were a mix of the identified teachers and teachers who were interested
Follow-up session in December included some of the teachers who missed day 2
In short, teachers are all over the place in terms of support, understanding, and readiness
2. Current Performance Assessed
Phone meeting with CAO on February 3, 2017
He asked for a plan for the remainder of the school year
Project ARC requested a session with teachers to determine their needs
Goal is to meet client needs rather than to guess/assume/predict the issues
2.5-hour session scheduled on February 15, 2017
Teachers attended based on choice and commitments to other meetings
Heavier attendance from DMS (Assistant Principal has been more supportive of staff, has participated in all training sessions, and was present for the assets inventory observations)
1, 2, and 3-day attendees, so all teachers were in a different place
One brand new teacher showed up for the session
Modified Socratic Seminar and Affinity Mapping Session
The key to uncovering answers is to ask the right question
How can we best support a culture of authentic, relevant, and complex learning at DMS/LMS?
3. Instruments/Protocols
Teachers sit in a circle
Directions for process are discussed (*This version of a Socratic Seminar has been developed by Dayna over the years)
Open-ended question is posed
Anyone may start the discussion
Responses to the question are encouraged
Questions about the question are desired
Every time a question is asked, the participants are requested to clap
The clapping is an auditory reminder that asking questions is the goal of the session - if no clapping is heard for a period of time, it is a cue that someone should probably think of asking a new question
The questions that are asked are recorded on sheets of chart paper by the facilitator (Dayna)
A question can be asked in response to a question
Participants are encouraged to rephrase questions if they feel a clarification is needed
Discussion proceeded to last approximately 50 minutes
Five sheets of chart paper were filled
Discussion participants determine 3-4 themes that emerged during the session and then map the questions to the themes
Questions are color-coded based on the theme to which the question belongs
Some questions are cross-themed
Post-session: The questions are organized by theme and written up to be shared with all teachers and administrators
Questions and the emergent themes are used to plan upcoming support sessions (for this assignment, the instructional goals are developed to ensure a more thoughtful process on developing support)
Subsequent sessions are now a result of teacher needs and are not based on facilitator perceptions
Sharing Practice Through Socratic Seminars (Mangrum, 2010)
"Build openness and trust for establishing productive conversations that lead to sound policies and practice in the school" (Mangrum, 2010, p. 41).
"Sometimes, what teachers need most is to just talk to each other" (Mangrum, 2010, p.40).
The implementation of this study was based on a traditional approach to a Socratic Seminar - used a text and opening, core, and closing questions asked by the facilitator
Socrates and the Method of Madness (Schneider, 2012)
"Evolution and pedagogical diversity are both good things" (Schneider, 2012, p.29).
Focus on student (in my case, the teachers were my students) talk, rather than teacher (me) talk: Conversation, debate, back-and-forth
Determinants for Failure and Success of Innovation Projects: The Road to the Sustainable Educational Initiative (Kirschner, Hendriks, Paas, & Wopereis, 2004)
Why do some innovations fail while others succeed? Why are some innovations more successful than others? (Study questions and key questions that Project ARC faces when we work with schools)
Qualitative study with guided interviews
Responses were labeled and clustered (similar to the affinity mapping of the Socratic Seminar)
Often we are quick to implement new pedagogical approaches without a proper investigation of the problems the innovation is supposed to address
Needs of future users?
The willingness of different participants to cooperate?
Success and failure factors?
What Would Socrates Say? (Cookson, 2009)
Sometimes we need to forego the use technology (i.e. - this discussion protocol)
Critical reflection is needed to bring together disjointed information (affinity mapping)
"Knowledge is social" (Cookson, 2009, para. 16).
"By looking at a challenge from multiple points of view, we are more likely to arrive at a realistic, effective solution" (Cookson, 2009, para. 19).
Needs Analysis
1. Description of the Setting
Downingtown School District, PA:
2. Current Performance Assessed
3. Instruments/Protocols
4. Justification/Research
5. Summary of Findings